In order to increase riveting qualities of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite material components in aircraft, and also considering CFRP components with poor openness of aircraft, the damage behavior and tensile shearing property of unilateral core pulling riveting for CFRP components were investigated by tests. The results show that the obvious damage is not observed on the surfaces of CFRP components after unilateral core pulling riveting, but the excessive length of rivet shank leads to a high or even tilted upsetting head. However, during the riveting process, the components are squeezed by the upsetting head, and the local bending deformation and extrusion damage occur in the rivet hole. Moreover, those damages are mainly concentrated on the outer surface of hole for CFRP component at the upsetting head. The larger diameter of rivet hole is, the more serious damage in unilateral riveting is. The tensile shearing force-displacement response of components presents the characteristics of linear growth stage, yield stage and fracture failure stage in sequence. The yield and final failure of components are dominated by the rivets, and the failure modes of components are all rivet shear failure. At the same time, the tensile yield limit of components is improved with the increasing of the diameter of rivet hole, and when the length of rivet shank is 6 mm, the yield limit of the components is greater than that of the components with the length of rivet shank of 6 mm.